Post-Phantom Planet One-Shots Present:

A Friendly Family Talk

Danny Fenton, aka Danny Phantom, was especially happy after the events of his statue unveiling. Admittedly, he was a LITTLE upset that his mom, Maddie, grounded him for using the robot double to let him go elsewhere, AGAIN, but he supposed it was to be expected after…certain events. "In hindsight, MAYBE I shouldn't have used it so close to her seeing a plane I was originally on-board crash," he allowed himself to admit.

Before he could go any further in this line of thinking, he noticed his dad, Jack, was looking a tad bit depressed at a photo album. Sighing, knowing full well why he was looking at said photos, he called out, "You can't blame yourself for what Vlad decided to become." Perking up, Jack turned back to his son. "You knew," he stated more then asked. Flinching upon realizing the implications of those two words, he replied by, "Since the college reunion: the only reason I didn't tell you then and there was that he threatened to expose me as well, and I wasn't ready for you to find out my secret just yet."

Nodding, showing he could accept that, the father of the household then stated, "Why wasn't it enough?" Reading between the lines, Danny replied with, "I suppose he didn't realize how important your friendship was until it was too late." Looking at his son, Jack found himself asking, "How could you possibly know that?" Stealing himself, Danny answered with, "Besides the fact that I saw Vlad show a brief bit of remorse on live TV, even with the news feed cutting the transmission time as much as possible? Because I've seen his reaction to losing you once already."

At his father's curious look, Danny sighed. "It was during the CAT testing period: Clockwork, the apparent ghost of time, came to me and showed me what would happen if I cheated on it instead of turning in the answers like you guys know I did. Long story short, you, Mom, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Mr. Lancer were all dead, I had become the worst ghost to exist since the Ghost King himself, and Vlad...he'd lost his half-ghost state." Shocked, Jack forced himself to ask, "How did THAT happen?"

Sighing, Danny replied with, "I suppose I tell you the same thing that the Vlad I found ten years in the future told ME." Clearing his throat, he adopted a Vlad-like voice before continuing with, "If it's any consolation, when the Nasty Burger exploded, they past SO quickly: they felt no pain. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of YOU, Daniel. With nowhere else to go, you came to ME: the only person left on the planet who could possibly hope to understand your situation. All you wanted was to make the hurt go away, so I honored your wishes: no more painful HUMAN emotions to drag you down. (sigh) Sadly that allowed the opportunity for the ghostly essence to be ripped out of ME. (pause for a bit) …and when my ghostly half mixed with yours, the experience overwhelmed you." Pausing for a bit, Danny's voice returned to normal before asking, "What happened to my HUMAN self?" Cringing and adopting Vlad's voice again, he simply stated, "Some things my boy…are better left unsaid."

To say Jack was shocked by all this would be the understatement of the year, but somehow he still willed himself to ask, "So…how DID Vladdie react to my passing?" Danny allowed himself a small smirk as he answered, in his own voice, with, "Vlad's exact words were, 'If any good came out of this, it's that the ten years without ghost powers gave me the chance to see what a FOOL I'd been.' I myself couldn't help but notice he took to holding an old college photo with you and Maddie, your own image unharmed, while he said this."

One might ask "Was Jack Fenton was happy to hear this?" Well, let's just say that Danny probably didn't inherit his poker face from his father and leave it at that. Needless to say, however, there WAS one last question on the man's mind: "I don't understand: how were you able to meet a version of Vlad ten years from now." Looking down somewhat uncomfortably, Danny replied with, "Because I was able to find his hideout when my future self trapped me in the Ghost Zone…ten years in the future." Sighing, he continued with, "That experience with the CAT taught me more than a few things, but the lesson I got from visiting that future version of Vlad is that none of us truly know how important something is until it's gone, ESPECIALLY in the case of friends and family. Unfortunately for my future self, he no longer had the HUMAN compassion to understand that."

Jack nodded, before thinking of something else. "This Clockwork," he began, "do you think he knows if I'll see the Vlad I knew ever again." Pausing for a minute or two, showing that he was genuinely thinking about it, Danny finally answered with, "Hard to say: aside from thermos containing that alternate future version of myself, I haven't been given a lot of evidence that any part of that time period actually exists. As for OUR Vlad, I already have an answer to the question: even if he DID return to Earth after the Dis-asteroid passed, he's smart enough to know that he can't be seen in broad daylight anymore." Noticing his father's downtrodden expression, he sighed and stated, "But I'll tell you one OTHER thing I learned during that adventure: something I told my Ultimate Enemy, in fact." Noticing he had his dad's full attention, he smiled and stated, "The future isn't set in stone."

Nodding, Jack asked to be alone for a bit. Danny nodded and let him be, though not before giving his father a hug. Once he got over the slight pride, he let out a sad sigh. "I don't know if you can hear me, Vladdie," Jack said to no one in particular, "but if you are, I want you to know that I'm still mad that Vlad Plasmius betrayed me. However, if he ever decides to come back, I'll try my hardest not to be the one to hurt Vlad MASTERS. I make no promises with Maddie though."

Unknown to the Fentons, one of Vlad's old drones happened to flutter by the window around this time. Somewhere in a secret bunker, a grey-haired man in a tattered suit felt himself smile. Picking up his old college year book, the halfa known as Vlad stated, "I miss you too…old friend."